On 19Jul2020 0204, Alex Goodwin wrote:
> On 18/7/20 10:59 pm, Rupert Boleyn wrote:
>> <snip>
>> Most of these are little personal niggles, but it adds up and for me
>> makes MgT unplayable. In no particular order:
>>
>> Colonists find it practically impossible to learn to use guns.
> The connection rules between PCs can help here, and I can strongly vouch
> for doing PC generation as a group.  I don't require each PC involved to
> get the _same_ skill - eg J. Semirandom Colonist might get Guns (NRG)
> out of the same incident that Danny Dodgie gets Recon.  There's also the
> skill packs that you can use to fill in skill holes.
Sure, but the point remains - Colonists, described as going and taming
untamed worlds, can only learn to use guns from an uncommon event, or by
getting to Rank 6, or by rolling 'weapon' twice on the mustering out
benefits table. In fact, the only combat skills they can learn are
'melee', and they are no more likely to get that than a factory worker
or a manager. It bugs me. Oh, and the only stats they can improve are
EDU and INT. Who knew that being a colonist means you just sit in a
chair all day.

By the way, Merchants, even rough-and-tumble Free Traders learn no
personal combat skills at all.

On the other hand, apparently corporate spying is a full-contact blood
sport, because they have plenty of chances of learning to fight.

It might be a minor thing, and I know it can be 'fixed' with the skill
packages, but it bugs me.

Another thing that I've noticed, having opened up my copy - there are 39
skills in MgT, not counting specialties. There are 23 in Book 1 of
Classic. Classic is actually more generous with skill rolls than MgT,
and in some ways more generous with other skill awards as well (MgT
gives out a few more, but tends to cap them at level-1). Both have 3-4
tables to roll on. The result is that any given career in MgT can cover
rather less of the possible range of skills than they could in Classic.

MegaTraveller had tons of skills, but pushed them into 'cascades' pretty
hard and gave out a pretty large number of skill points (on good rolls -
it was as stingy as Classic if you rolled badly). Both CT (including in
Citizens of the Imperium) and MT made sure that somewhere on those
tables there was a combat skill, even if it was merely Brawling (and
they gave out Gun Combat-0 as well).

I like the skill package idea in MgT, but unless it's a no-combat game
or everyone took a military career, the choices are going to have to
always be from the packages with combat skills in them because the odds
are that most non-military characters in a MgT game won't be able to
fight. Given most of the Traveller adventures over the years have had
some shooting at some point, that's a problem.

So yeah, overall it bugs me.

>> Fusion Guns do radiation damage.
> Isn't that sort of implied by ... umm... fusion?

It's been absolutely explicit in every previous edition of Traveller
that there's no radiation damage from the things.
>> The Far Trader is presented as being a Free Trader hull with bigger
>> drives and fuel tanks installed. Gone is the classic double-hull and
>> glazed noses.
> The Empress Marava ?  p116, MGT2 High Guard.
Added after the last playtest copy I got then (I never paid the extra
after the kickstarter to get the final HG). Good.

Still, it annoys me that it's not in the basic rules, and instead
there's just this hacked Beowolf.
>> Quite a few escort and cruiser ships now do 9-G.
> None that I could find in HG, but I'm not looking overly hard, so take
> your word.
It may have been fixed for the final version.
> As it's very clearly implied (if not outright stated) ships have
> internal power grids (otherwise Jump dimming gets tricky), where in
> blazes is any gubbins about running energy weapons, ship power needs, or
> Jump drive off absorbed dakka?  It's a flippin' capacitor bank, its not
> like drawing energy out over time counts as _power_ or anything...
>
> If the above stunts are impossible, where in blazes does the power
> arising from capacitor discharge _go_ ?  Boiling the crew and lighting
> the hull up like an exploding sequin factory?
The numbers for dissipation seem to be related to the basic power
requirements of the ship, but if so, they should have just said so, and
let people use the charge in place of a broken reactor, etc.

Also, you can only discharge with the globe powered right down, whereas
previously you could discharge 'in the gaps' when flickering.

Now, me favourite version (TNE) has all sorts of inconsistencies with
previous editions, and I don't think they really thought about the
implications of ships requiring lots of hydrogen propellant for combat
manoeuvres and that same thing being used as jump fuel (most combat
ships can make double jumps or more if they're confident they won't need
to fight), but otherwise they beat all hell out of this.

That said, these days I use GURPS 4e, the equipment from Ultra Tech,
etc., and Spaceships with house-rules to make it sort of Traveller-like,
so I'm doing all sorts of terrible things to the setting, etc. too.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>